AIR 1966 SUPREME COURT 1672 ::1966 (13) FacLR 65 ::1966 2 LabLJ 602 ::1963-64 24 FJR 472 ::1964 (1) SCJ 382 ::1964 2 SCR 125 ::1963 2 SCWR 156

Supreme Court Of India

(From Second Labour Court, West Bengal)*

Hon'ble Judge(s): P. B. Gajendragadkar, M. Hidayatullah, J. C. Shah , JJJ

Industrial Disputes Act (14 of 1947) , S.15— Discharge of workman giving rise to industrial dispute - Discharge claimed by employer to be according to contract of employment - Power of Industrial Court in reference of dispute in such case-It can consider evidence to find that discharge is not puntive or mala fide. Where an order of discharge passed by an employer gives rise to an industrial dispute, the form of the order by which the employee's services are terminated, would not be decisive; industrial adjudication would be entitled to examine the substance of the matter and decide whether the termination is in fact discharge simpliciter or it amounts to dismissal which has put on the cloak of a discharge simpliciter. If the Industrial Court is satisfied that the order of discharge is punitive, that it is mala fide, or that it amounts to victimisation or unfair labour practice, it is competent to the Industrial Court to set aside the order and in a proper case, direct the reinstatement of the employee. In some cases, the termination @page-SC1673 of the employee's services may appear to the Industrial Court to be capricious or so unreasonably severe that an inference may legitimately and reasonably be drawn that in terminating the services, the employer was not acting bona fide. The test always has to be whether the act of the em....